Devloper boards?

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2011 at 14:51

Anyone know when we are likely to see a cortex a15 developer boards? I want to make a small quite HTPC.

And since someone Showed me
http://www.linaro.org/low-cost-development-boards/

I really want one, also another sites that sale such stuff?
Is anyone running one and what software would be compatible. Anyone any idea if w8 arm version would be compatible with the a15

SKILL · 30 Dec 2011 at 16:26

Farnell sell some boards, others can be bought direct from the manufacturer.

A15 stuff won't be for a bit yet, from the announcements made I think the new Exynos chip from Samsung will be the first, slated for 'early 2012' iirc (I'd imagine it will be in the SGS3 so april/may time if the SGS2 release is anything to go by), dev boards will probably come late, publicly at least.

As for W8, that all depends on if the SoC maker ports it, ultimately yes W8 will support it as it's the same instruction set as A8 and A9 I believe, but the way SoC's work means you can't just have A15 support and then work on all A15 chips...

sarge78 · 30 Dec 2011 at 16:41

^ Yeah, all ARMv7 SoCs should be compatible with W8 but there won't be a full range of drivers for most, basic stuff should work bit it's not something you'd use for a HTPC.
Popular dev boards, like the pandaboard/Origen, should be well supported for W8 if 3rd party devs get on board. Best wait for ARM boards for Windows 8 specifically.

Here's some other options...

nVidia CARMA:
Based on Tegra 3 and a Quadro 1000M GPU (this is a small version of Barcelona/nVidia's new supercomputer

)
http://blogs.nvidia.com/2011/12/meet-carma-the-cuda-on-arm-development-kit/
No idea how much it'll cost, total overkill for a HTPC

Or at the other end of the spectrum...

Rasberry Pi:
£16 and should run something like XBMC with ease, the 25GFLOP GPGPU is good for high profile 1080p decoding.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Can't wait to pick one up in the next few months

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2011 at 16:52

Wow that can really run HD videos?

If so, I'm in.

basically smart phones are a HTPC so my thinking is. Why have a big comp sat in the front room, producing noise and heat. When something so small can do it.

If that video is proved correct I'm getting several.

I don't suppose Linux supports iTunes or Zune though. Must be software to stream over network though, for a pc running iTunes/Zune?

Why can't drm free films hurry up.

ng93 · 30 Dec 2011 at 21:04

I'd be interested in this too. If Raspberry Pi really can do HD video no problem I'll be getting one the moment they come out. Hopefully someone ports Android to it, that would be immense

Rich_L · 30 Dec 2011 at 21:11

I was thinking this the other day, with my mediatomb/ubuntu server I can watch movies/play music on my Droid using PlugPlayer, all it would need is an HDMI out and a bluetooth keyboard or something and that's basically an HTPC set-up.

DLNA/UPnP clients are awesome

Judgeneo · 30 Dec 2011 at 21:11

I had no idea the pi was so capable.

Definitely picking one up if that video is accurate

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2011 at 21:19

Judgeneo said:
I had no idea the pi was so capable.

Definitely picking one up if that video is accurate

Nor did I. I though it would be a play thing people picked up as it was cheap and then file it in a cupboard 3 days later.

I'll be getting one for parents as well if true.

Mum wants to watch Iplayer and the like on the tv ATM there's no easy or cheap way of doing this.

Can't wait for it to be released and proper reviews now.

Judgeneo · 30 Dec 2011 at 21:26

Glaucus said:
Mum wants to watch Iplayer and the like on the tv ATM there's no easy or cheap way of doing this.

Same situation here, currently they're using my brothers wii but its hardly ideal and you can't watch films that are saved as a file.

Shouldn't be too hard to control via my phone/tablet either right?

sarge78 · 30 Dec 2011 at 23:42

Rich_L said:
I was thinking this the other day, with my mediatomb/ubuntu server I can watch movies/play music on my Droid using PlugPlayer, all it would need is an HDMI out and a bluetooth keyboard or something and that's basically an HTPC set-up. DLNA/UPnP clients are awesome

I'm currently running a SE Arc as a portable HTPC.

It connects with my old wireless keyboard/mouse perfectly (via the dock) and I've got about 38GB of DVD rips on various microSD cards in my wallet.
It just needs 1080p output, a large screen UI (which ICS should solve) and the ability to turn the screen off when connected via HDMI.

Judgeneo said:
I had no idea the pi was so capable.

Definitely picking one up if that video is accurate

The Broadcom SoC is specifically designed for low power/cost multimedia HD playback with 'good enough' general compute.
You get a 700MHz ARM11 cpu (fast enough for a lightweight OS/adequate web browsing performance) but a massive decoder (the dual core VideoCore IV GPGPU is capable of ~25 GFLOPS, the iPad2 GPU is roughly ~15 GFLOPS by comparison)

Glaucus said:
Mum wants to watch Iplayer and the like on the tv ATM there's no easy or cheap way of doing this.

The BBC iPlayer addon is working with ATV2/xbm. That's a really good 720p streaming option for £80.
I think they've got something special planned to replace it this year? With luck they'll add more platforms/players for films. (iTunes running on Android would be great

)

There's also a few 'computer on a stick' designs coming out in 2012. Like the FXI Cotton Candy (Samsung Exynos on a USB/HDMI stick)

It'll be much more expensive than the Raspberry Pi at £100-£150 but you get a full retail product running Android.

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2011 at 23:45

£80 on parents no chance, £25 on the other hand is doable..
However stick for myself may well be an option. Android not to sure on for that price as I will be going w8 ecosystem when it's released, if not before. Although I doubt they'll release an arm beta or RC

What exactly does this mean?

Virtualization client for Windows, Linux, Mac, embedded

BloomerzUK · 30 Dec 2011 at 23:53

Glaucus said:
£80 on parents no chance, £25 on the other hand is doable..
However stick for myself may well be an option. Android not to sure on for that price as I will be going w8 ecosystem when it's released, if not before. Although I doubt they'll release an arm beta or RC

What exactly does this mean?

I think it's a glorified VNC client. It's a striped XP build streaming over the network (in lamens terms)

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2011 at 23:55

BloomerzUK said:
I think it's a glorified VNC client. It's a striped XP build streaming over the network (in lamens terms)

So it runs a virtual windows/mac or it streams whats running on a different Pc
Would it allow films to be used from iTunes or Zune run on mac/windoes. If so I must get this device.

BloomerzUK · 30 Dec 2011 at 23:58

I think you would have to research it. It will definitely run XBMC.

I'd like to get one running XBMC, and get a NAS drive on the network with a BitTorrent client.. will be well away!

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2011 at 23:59

I hope that videos true and it's out on their website to by in the next month or two.

That combine with one of the super cheap 7" android tablet to over wifi, it would be great.

BloomerzUK · 31 Dec 2011 at 00:01

There is a video of it streaming a 1080p video somewhere, and it does it with no issues what-so-ever.. smooth as butter. It could be the video above.

Edit: Yes it is, the first video at the top. Skip to 00:56. Albeit a trailer, but it's still awesome.. sound over HDMI too!

Glaucus · 1 Jan 2012 at 23:37

Is there any rumours of android being ported to pi raspberry?

Shimmy · 2 Jan 2012 at 01:50

Pretty cool, but my phone is my mini HTPC that I take everywhere.

I can mirror everything on my phone over hdmi on TV, so that includes 1080p videos, streaming, HD games, bluetooth peripherals etc...

Or am I missing the point?

Glaucus · 2 Jan 2012 at 01:52

Shimmy said:
Or am I missing the point?

yeah, you have to keep plugging you phone into the tv and while it's plugged in you can't use it.

Shimmy · 2 Jan 2012 at 02:10

Glaucus said:
yeah, you have to keep plugging you phone into the tv and while it's plugged in you can't use it.

I don't personally consider plugging one cable into my phone an inconvenience, but granted others might and just want a standalone unit for their tv.

What do you mean I can't use it when it's plugged in?